Disproportionate Use of Force
Do you ever get tired of hearing a phrase? The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has brought up a new one. Israel is accused of using a “disproportionate use of force” with Hezbollah.
The argument goes, “Hey, they only kidnapped a few of your soldiers and shot a few missiles. You can’t bomb the airport and take out half their military.” That is just disproportionate. I don’t get it. Since when is war supposed to be proportionate?
You fight a war to kill people and break things. It’s not pretty. It’s just a fact. It is not a nice agreement where gentlemen shake hands and say, “may the best man win.” For whatever reason a war is started, they all end with the same goal - you try to kill the other guys before they kill you – in whatever proportion is necessary.
The United States and its allies have lost around 2800 soldiers in the Iraq war. Does this mean that we should only have killed 2800 or so Iraqis? The actual number is closer to 30,000 troops and many more civilians (not necessarily killed by the coalition forces.) Is that not disproportionate? What about Afghanistan? The United States and allies have lost less than 500 soldiers and the Afghans have lost closer to 9000. That’s not fair.
When has it ever been fair? Did we make agreements with Japan or Germany in World War II? Did we chat with Vietnam before fighting them? North Korea?
The Eisenhower administration came up with the idea of “massive retaliation” in 1954. It said, in so many words, “If you attack us, we will attack you 10 times as hard.” It was mostly focused on nuclear weapons, but it would still have been disproportionate… as it was designed to be, for a deterrent to the first strike ever taking place.
There is a lot of history between Israel and the nations surrounding her. There are UN resolutions already telling Lebanon how to deal with Hezbollah. There are already 2000 UN “peacekeepers” on the border today. You never hear about them, because they’re not keeping any peace.
I hope and pray for peace. But when a time comes for war, and inevitably it comes, proportion is not priority.
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Steve Adams was born and raised in Ohio, graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Computer Science degree in 1988, and subsequently moved to Lexington KY. He has worked at Lexmark International since 1989 and has been a Part Time Local Pastor at St. Luke UMC since 2004. He is married with two children. He is not politically correct, but is politically active. He is a registered Republican, married to a registered Democrat, and running for President of the United States as a write-in candidate on the independent ticket. No joke. You can read all about it on www.PresidentAdams.com or e-mail Steve directly at Steve@PresidentAdams.com.
PresidentAdams
The argument goes, “Hey, they only kidnapped a few of your soldiers and shot a few missiles. You can’t bomb the airport and take out half their military.” That is just disproportionate. I don’t get it. Since when is war supposed to be proportionate?
You fight a war to kill people and break things. It’s not pretty. It’s just a fact. It is not a nice agreement where gentlemen shake hands and say, “may the best man win.” For whatever reason a war is started, they all end with the same goal - you try to kill the other guys before they kill you – in whatever proportion is necessary.
The United States and its allies have lost around 2800 soldiers in the Iraq war. Does this mean that we should only have killed 2800 or so Iraqis? The actual number is closer to 30,000 troops and many more civilians (not necessarily killed by the coalition forces.) Is that not disproportionate? What about Afghanistan? The United States and allies have lost less than 500 soldiers and the Afghans have lost closer to 9000. That’s not fair.
When has it ever been fair? Did we make agreements with Japan or Germany in World War II? Did we chat with Vietnam before fighting them? North Korea?
The Eisenhower administration came up with the idea of “massive retaliation” in 1954. It said, in so many words, “If you attack us, we will attack you 10 times as hard.” It was mostly focused on nuclear weapons, but it would still have been disproportionate… as it was designed to be, for a deterrent to the first strike ever taking place.
There is a lot of history between Israel and the nations surrounding her. There are UN resolutions already telling Lebanon how to deal with Hezbollah. There are already 2000 UN “peacekeepers” on the border today. You never hear about them, because they’re not keeping any peace.
I hope and pray for peace. But when a time comes for war, and inevitably it comes, proportion is not priority.
--
Steve Adams was born and raised in Ohio, graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Computer Science degree in 1988, and subsequently moved to Lexington KY. He has worked at Lexmark International since 1989 and has been a Part Time Local Pastor at St. Luke UMC since 2004. He is married with two children. He is not politically correct, but is politically active. He is a registered Republican, married to a registered Democrat, and running for President of the United States as a write-in candidate on the independent ticket. No joke. You can read all about it on www.PresidentAdams.com or e-mail Steve directly at Steve@PresidentAdams.com.
PresidentAdams
posted by Steve Adams | 6:12 PM
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